Mineral Leasing Policy: Competitive Bidding and the Resource Rent Tax Given Various Responses to Risk*

This paper considers the choice between lump-sum bidding and a tax conditional on net present value (of which the Resource Rent Tax is a practical example) as methods of collecting rent from mining projects. It demonstrates that there is an optimal combination of the two methods and that the relative emphasis to be placed on each depends heavily on the manner in which investors take risk into account. Four stylized ways in which investors and governments respond to risk are examined and, in addition to the more familiar types of risk, sovereign risk is introduced. The paper argues for the placing of relatively heavy emphasis on the conditional tax.     

On What States Do Prices Depend? Answers From Ecuador

The frequency of retail price adjustment differs across goods, both in low inflationary environments, such has the United States, and in high inflationary environments typical of less developed countries. We develop a multishock menu cost model in which retailers intermediate trade between producers and consumers. Since the cost share of intermediate inputs varies across goods, the model produces a cross-sectional distribution of frequency of price adjustment even though firms face a common menu cost. The model is evaluated using a rich micropanel of retail prices in Ecuador in a period spanning a financial crisis and subsequent dollarization.     

Entertainment Industry Ratings Disclosures and the Clear and Conspicuous Standard

This study examined entertainment ratings disclosures against the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC’s) Clear and Conspicuous Standard (CCS). In their investigation of marketing of violent entertainment to youth, the FTC advocated that the motion picture, music recording, and electronic games industries focus on “ensuring that the rating … and the reasons for the rating … are effectively and clearly communicated to parents” (p. 31). An investigation of a week of prime‐time television commercials across six networks revealed that with the exception of dual modality presentation of the letter rating, ratings disclosure information is often incomplete and falls far short of meeting the FTC's CCS. We offer recommendations to the entertainment industry to address these shortcomings.     

Conjectures on Colonial Accounting History in Australia

This article analyses three current conjectures regarding Australian accounting history between 1788 and 1817. All relate to double entry bookkeeping. First, that it was practised in Australia before 1817: second, that it was introduced to Australia by Lieutenant John Palmer. RN. in 1788: and third, that its teaching in Australia can be traced to the period 1804–6. Additional conjectures are proposed about the introduction of double entry bookkeeping to Australia and the identity of Australia's first double entry accountant. It is argued that the pioneering of double entry bookkeeping in the colony of New South Wales should not be located before 1810.     

Religion: A Confounding Cultural Element in the International Harmonization of Accounting?

Discussion of the influence of culture on the international development and harmonization of accounting has focused primarily upon indigenous characteristics which are confined within national boundaries. But cultural inputs, such as religion, which transcend national boundaries, should not be overlooked. Islam is a particular case in point. Its principles commit Muslims to a definitive code of ethical commercial and personal behaviour affecting both the structuring and financing of business affairs between the faithful, and between Muslims and non-Muslims. Islam has the potential for influencing the structure, underlying concepts and the mechanisms of accounting in the Islamic world. Its potential for influencing accounting policy is illustrative of religion as a confounding element in the analysis of national idiosyncrasies in accounting practice and in deconstructing the impediments to international harmonization.     

Examining the impact of consumer debt on parent-child interaction

The purpose of this study was to examine the possible relationship between consumer debt and several aspects of parent-child interaction, namely time spent by parents with their child(ren). affectionate interaction between parents and children and disciplinary parent-child interaction. A small, positive relationship was found between consumer debt and disciplinary parent-child interaction. No meaningful relationship was found between consumer debt and parental time spent with child(ren) or affectionate parental-child interaction. Age and number of children are more reliable correlates of parent-child interaction than is amount of household consumer debt.     

Lessons from Credit Bureaus for Improving the Market for Electronic Medical Records

Electronic medical records (EMRs) have tremendous potential to lower consumer medical costs and improve quality, yet their use in the United States remains extremely low. We explain the reasons for this market failure and then document the strikingly parallel problems in the lending market one hundred years ago. We investigate how the evolution of credit bureaus helped address market limitations in lending, and ask whether similar entities—what we call health information bureaus—might overcome similar problems in EMR adoption and interconnection.     

The Use of Unsigned Earnings Quality Measures in Tests of Earnings Management

This paper examines the implications of using the absolute value of discretionary accruals when testing for earnings management. First, we analytically develop the mean and variance of the distribution of absolute discretionary accruals, and show that the expected value is an increasing function of the variance in the underlying error term from the first‐stage discretionary accrual estimation model. Second, we highlight several firm characteristics that are related to the error variance in discretionary accrual estimation models. Using simulations, we show that correlation between the earnings management partitioning variable and these firm characteristics leads to an overrejection of the null hypothesis of no earnings management. Third, we provide research design suggestions to help researchers mitigate the potential bias arising from the use of unsigned measures of earnings management. Using these suggestions, we replicate a recent study, and demonstrate that the inferences change after controlling for operating volatility.